Brave New World Rep Presents BNWorks 2022

Brooklyn's Brave New World Repertory Theatre has announced the fifth edition of its annual new play reading series, Brave New Works 2022: Ditmas Park. In this yearly series, Brave New World Rep (BNW) looks for new plays that address specific hot-button issues of social justice ranging from Race in America and Diversity to Climate Change and Police Reform. This year, the topic is: Stories from the Queer/LGBTQIA+ Community.

The three new plays selected from more than 100 submissions:

• Sunday January 30: For Lunar New Year (Zoom)

Gumiho by Nina Ki

Directed by Ashley Thaxton-Stevenson

• Sunday February 27: For Black History Month (Live)

Where Have All The Fairies Gone? by Aaron Coleman

Directed by Benjamin Viertel

• Sunday March 27: For Women's Month (Live)

Daughters of the Sexual Revolution by Dana Leslie Goldstein

Directed by Katherine Wilkinson

Says BNW producing artistic director Claire Beckman: "These new plays celebrate queer lives from pre-Stonewall to the present with levity and heart."

January's playwright Nina Ki says "Gumiho reflects intersectional aspects of queer Asian identity - and I'm thrilled to be back with BNW to present this play!"

Playwright Aaron Coleman of February's Where Have All The Fairies Gone?, says "My play takes us to pre-Stonewall 1968 Greenwich Village, as three gay men form their own family at the intersection of Civil Rights and Gay Liberation. I am excited to be among this fantastic group of playwrights, each exploring a different angle of the queer experience."

Dana Leslie Goldstein, who penned the March offering, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution, says it was a privilege to have her play Go Down, Moses presented last year by BNW's "talented and dedicated group of artists, several of whom will be returning in this year's reading. Set in 1976, against the backdrop of post-Nixon America, the bicentennial, valium abuse and the six- million-dollar man, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution is the story of three women at different points in their lives, whose personal choices are constrained by their age and their time period, but most of all, by the depth of their own courage."

Beckman also cited the literary team who championed these plays from the 100 plays. "We'd like to give a shout out to our senior literary associate Dexter McKinney, as well as Ian Whitt and Kay Kerimian."

Brave New World is also proud of Crystal Skillman and Hersh Ellis, the creative team behind one of their BNWorks 2020 plays, Rain & Zoe Save the World, which is set to open in February in London's Jermyn Street Theatre.

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